Zephyr and Spawn-reborn as an 80GP

Charles Clinton, John Jennings, Trip Nolan

Wendy, Keri and Brick

Tailgate party? Blackbear observes the chaos.

The only way to ride!!

Trippy and Charles
 

Hey, this tastes good!

Revving up the 2-stroke blender in the Team Wetleather/Rocket Science Racing pit.
 

Phil, Andrea, Marty, Chris and Kevin enjoy the results.

Jim Engel

A visit from the Grand Wazoo!

Ready to rock! Infield on the Oval.

Grid up!
 

Green flag, go!

Charles and Trippy in Turn 3

Wendy in Turn 3

Jim Broglio (practice)

Havoc on Zephyr (practice)

Charles and Rosebud

Wendy at speed

WE NEED MORE RACE PHOTOS, Mail Havoc23<carcosa@eskimo.com>
 
 

Back to NW-YSR
 

Date: Mon, 11 May 1998 21:26:58
From: havoc23
To: Northwest YSR-50 Enthusiasts
Subject: WMRRA YSR races at Spokane

Absolutely rocked!
Wendy and I left Seattle at oh-dark-thirty Saturday morning for the long haul to Spokane Raceway Park, round 2 of the WMRRA series and a big unknown for us YSR'ers...we hadn't been able to coordinate for the kart track ahead of time and had no idea what else if anything would be available...but we were game, and hit the drizzly grey road in hopes of good things! We stuffed Zephyr,(Wendy's 50) and Spawn-reborn (more in a minute) into Pegasus the Aerostar along with our gear and away we went, leaving Jim Broglio's 3-rail trailer and my 50-Superbike (as yet unnamed) behind, lacking the right size pintle to connect it to the van...
At SIR, Spawn ate the bottom end and has yet to be rebuilt, but the next weekend I'd gone and bought Dennis Soltis' 80GP bike, ported YZ80 motor, extensive frame & suspension mods, the works, and rebodied it with Spawn, (didn't want to crash the nice Team Roberts Lucky Strike replica bodywork) heh heh, didn't tell a soul until we showed up at the races Saturday...I'd only ridden around my local neighborhood, just enough to know this was a quantum leap from the 50's, should be interesting...or at least exciting!!
At the track finally, we found Jim, Keri, John Jennings with his #911 250 Ninjette and got unloaded. We scoped out the available areas, which was only the staging area near the gate, all chunked up and tiny, eeeuwww! But, nobody was using the kart track, and the oval-racer stock car guys didn't have it till 3pm! Jim tracked down Orville and got permission to use it, way to go, Jim!! So at lunch, after TOR which Squido and Charles rode in, (whee!), we all went over to pull weeds and sweep it off...alone in the oval, the sounds of invisible motors echoing from the racers practicing on the road course lent an eerie surreal quality to the whole thing...once we got it cleared off, we had it till 3pm, meaning over 2 solid hours of practice! That alone was worth it, what a gas! Present were Wendy, Keri, Charles Clinton, Trip Nolan, Squido, and Ralph Redding on his MB5...
Got my first real feel for the 80, boy does it pull, and stiff as hell, too, made my hands hurt, glad I put foam grips on it right away! The clipons took getting used to, too, but an absolute hoot to ride, though given my non experience level every lap was a new education... We hadn't been out for minutes though when I noticed Wendy's rear tire was very low! I pulled her over and we found a huge nail in the tire! Charles volunteered his BMW tire-plug kit, and it worked as advertised, thanks Charles!! This took a while but in the meantime everyone took turns trying out each others bikes, and turned laps until we were beat, rested a little and turned some more! The track was rough, with big transitions onto & off the oval, but was absolutely fantastic - everybody improved their riding in leaps and bounds, (as well as a couple slides, too), we came away grinning from ear to ear! Around 3pm the oval track racers brought the fire engine around to wash off the track, so we packed it in for the day...
Back in the pits, Team Rocket Science had their 2-stroke blender going, making many tasty marguritas for the crowd of racers, crews and friends that gathered 'round...before we got too sauced to drive we headed out to H.Marc Lewis' place where we were staying that nite. Marc had laid on a bunch of food & drink, and we enjoyed the hospitality and comraderie immensely! Thanks Marc!! I rode his trials-bicycle, shit another toy I "must" have...anyone know of one for sale?
Next morning we grogged out of bed to delicious breakfast (!) then made it back out to the track...inspecting Zephyr's tire repair we discovered all the sprocket studs were working loose! Loctite, Loctite! Tim Keane lent some genuine British article, thanks Tim! Something I noticed was that throughout the pits everybody seemed more than willing to lend what they had, tools, gas, expertise/advice... what a great group, I'm pleased and honored to call so many of them friends! Then, out we went for another couple hours of practice!!
Sunday was hot and sunny, but we had too much fun to let the heat bother us! I had one "moment" in the hairpin when the rear end slid out under power, I caught it but bent the shift lever in the process! Finally put some laps on Zephyr, too, that bike really pulls now, with the reeds, jet kit and Toomey! Enjoyed trading bikes again, the transition from the 80 to the 50's and back was pretty remarkable...borrowed Rosebud and what fun grinding the pegs! Cut those down, Charles!
Race time came and after a quick two warmup laps we were off! I got my usual terrible start, but then the hp advantage took over and I was away...wish Tyler and Duncan'd been there so I could follow someone that knew what they were doing! O well, SIR on Memorial Day... Everyone rode a great race, with the finishing order:
Me, first overall and 80GP class, Squido, second overall and 50GP first place, (Happy Birthday!) Ralph Redding, 3rd overall, 2nd in 80GP, Bill Nolan, 4th overall, 2nd in 50GP, Charles Clinton 5th, 3rd in class, Wendy Dahl 6th, 4thth in class, Keri Grassl 7th, 5th in class.
When the race was over we hung out awhile and practiced some more, I rode Ralph's MB5 and promptly lowsided in the hairpin, sheesh! We finally packed it in and hauled for home, exhausted but exhilarated. What pictures I got are at the NW-YSR web site: http://www.ironhorse.com/~cac/ysr.html Thanks again to Charles Clinton for the bandwidth for the NW-YSR pages!
There were other cameras there, please please if you got any pictures let me scan them for the web site???
Many thanks to WMRRA and everybody concerned for making this possible! As usual I am neglecting to list everyone I'd like to thank for your enthusiasm and support, racers, friends et al!! Next stop SIR on Memorial Day, then it's the Can-Ams in Wenatchee, oboy, so be there or be square!